France’s Lauriane Nolot and Italy’s Gian Stragiotti are the new Formula Kite European Champions, crowned on Akyaka Kite Beach in Türkiye after a finale sailed in the kind of conditions the event had been chasing all week: sunshine, flat water and a reliable thermal breeze that opened around 15 knots before easing through the afternoon.
Nolot’s title came down to a single tactical call in the second race of the day. After a difficult start left her buried in the fleet, she committed to the right side of the course, got briefly tangled with China’s Wan Li at the front of the fleet as the two converged, and held her nerve through the mess to cross the line first and take the European title.
The men’s Open title, the broader honour open to competitors beyond Europe, went to Singapore’s Maximilian Maeder, who simply didn’t lose. He swept all four Gold Fleet races on finals day, and made the sharpest equipment call of the event along the way: as the breeze eased below 14 knots for the last race, Maeder stepped up to a 21-metre kite while much of the fleet stayed on smaller gear, and sailed away with it.
Australia’s Breiana Whitehead closed out her international season in Akyaka too, finishing fifth after a campaign that took her across three continents this year. It wasn’t the podium, but a top-five finish at a European Championship, sailed outside her own hemisphere, against a fleet this deep, is exactly the kind of result a season is actually judged on.
